and full play to all that is good and generous in them, to secure
in an unusual degree the love of those into whose intimate
society Providence has thrown them.

It is stated by Dr. Livingstone, the celebrated explorer of
Africa, that the blow of a lion's paw upon his shoulder, which was
so severe as to break his arm, completely annihilated fear; and he
suggests that it is possible that Providence has mercifully
arranged, that all those beasts that prey upon life shall have
power to destroy the sting of death in the animals which are their
natural victims. I do not believe that this power is mercifully
assigned to beasts of prey alone, but that the misfortunes that
assail our limbs and forms, in whatever shape and at whatever time
they may come, bring with them something which lightens the blow,
or obviates the pain, if we will accept it. There is a calm
consciousness in every soul, however harshly the lion's paw may
fall upon the body which it inhabits, that it is itself
invulnerable--that whatever may be the condition of the body, the
soul cannot be injured by physical forms or forces.

Physical calamity never comes with the power to extinguish that
which is essential to the highest manhood and womanhood, and never
fails to bring with it a motive for the adjustment of the soul to
its conditions. The little boy whose "Hail Columbia" has been
ringing in my ears all day, accepted the conditions of his life,
and the sting of his calamity has departed. It is pleasant to say
to him, and to all the brotherhood and sisterhood of ugliness and
lameness, that there is every reason to believe that there is no
such thing in heaven as a one-legged or a club-footed soul--no
such thing as an ugly or a misshapen soul--no such thing as a